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September/October 2009 Alternative Health
The Naturopathic Way: What is Illness?

by Christopher Vasey

It is rare for any person whose health has been compromised to ask himself, "Why am I sick? What is really happening in my body?" To the contrary, all of his attention - and that of those around him - is focused on his blatant, disagreeable or painful symptoms, which are actually just surface manifestations of his deep-rooted illness.

It seems self-evident that the normal reaction would be to make a vigorous counterattack to the assault represented by the illness. As a general rule we behave as if disease were an outside entity independent of the patient, which, by entering the body, suddenly makes the patient sick. From this perspective, we consider the individual stricken by illness to be an innocent victim requiring our assistance because, through bad luck, he or she suffered an unhealthy assault.

The expressions used to speak of illness clearly support this premise. We say that we "fall" ill, that we have been "stricken" or that we have "caught" a disease.

According to this hypothesis, taught by allopathic medicine, each "assailant" determines different characteristic disorders. There are, therefore, as many diseases as there are assailants: this is what is known as multiple causes, or the plurality of disease. Since there are no common elements among diseases in this framework, each must be treated with its own specific remedy.

In naturopathy, however, all diseases are considered as different manifestations of a single, common disorder. This common denominator, this profound illness from which all others result, resides on the level of the biological terrain, or internal cellular environment. This terrain consists of all the fluids in the body, including those contained within cells and those in which the cells are bathed, as well as blood, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid.

The intra- and extracellular fluids, along with the blood, represent 70 percent of the body's weight. These fluids are crucial, inasmuch as they constitute the environment of our cells. Intracellular fluid fills the cells, gives the body its shape and tone, and allows the exchanges that need to take place between the organs. Extracellular fluid carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells, and carries waste from the cells to the excretory organs.

Our cells depend entirely on these fluids. They deliver nutritive supplies (food, vitamins, water, oxygen and so on), eliminate toxins created by the metabolic process, and transmit messages from one cell to another, ensuring their coordinated and harmonious interaction.

Just as our environment provides conditions that are favorable for health or that make us sick, depending on whether or not it is polluted, the environment of the cells plays an influential role in the state of their health. If they are bathing in a milieu that is deficient in oxygen and overloaded with wastes, they will be incapable of performing their tasks properly.

Our body is made up of cells. If these cells are not functioning normally, the entire body will function poorly and enter the state that we call illness.

There is a precise and ideal composition of the internal environment that permits proper functioning of the body. Any major quantitative or qualitative change in these fluids leads to illness. For this reason, the vital force of the body is constantly struggling to maintain the internal cellular environment in perfect balance.

The body does this primarily by neutralizing and expelling all wastes and toxins that are a consequence of metabolism. This purification is carried out by the emunctory, or excretory organs - liver, intestines, kidneys, skin, lungs - which filter and eliminate waste.

The localization of "surface" disorders depends on the particular weaknesses of an individual's body. All the body's organs are immersed in fluids that are overloaded with wastes. They are all irritated and attacked similarly by toxic sludge. The first organs to give way, the first to find this environment intolerable, are obviously those that are genetically weakest or have the greatest demands placed on them. For example, for people whose profession requires them to talk a lot, it would be the throat. For those most often affected by stress, the nerves will give way. Miners, painters and others who breathe in dust or noxious gases at their place of employment are likely to have problems with the respiratory tract. The illness is one and the same in all cases, but manifests differently in every individual.

When confronted by a rising tide of overloads and congestion of the tissues, the vital force does not remain on the sidelines as a passive spectator. It reacts vigorously to restore order to the physical organism so that it can continue - or resume - its normal functioning. All its efforts aim at reestablishing the purity of the biological terrain by neutralizing the toxins found in this internal cellular environment, and expelling waste from the body by means of the various excretory organs. This eviction of toxins from the body often can take a spectacular form. Such events are called detoxification crises, also known as cleansing crises, or healing crises, due to the abrupt intensity of their inception.

Elimination during these kinds of crises will be made through the same excretory organs as in conditions of normal health, but with greater forcefulness. Colloidal waste will be expectorated through the respiratory tract, and urine will be laden with waste. The skin may eliminate waste through heavy perspiration, pimples or various forms of eczema. The digestive tract also plays a role by releasing diarrhea, or abundant secretions of bile.

Thanks to the body's vital force, it contains the capacity for self-healing through its immune response. But the body's immune system is only powerful and effective as long as the biological terrain remains pure and balanced.

Christopher Vasey, N.D., author of The Naturopathic Way, is a Switzerland-based naturopath specializing in detoxification and rejuvenation. Visit www.christophervasey.ch. Excerpted with permission by Healing Arts Press at www.healingartspress.com.